The sickly green smoke from the Lebetem Miasmatis rolled over the parapets and into every open mouth.

  Callie reached the base of the rampart as two elves staggered in, both coughing and clutching at their chests. Their skin was already tinged a faint gray-green, and one collapsed before she could say a word.

  She knelt, placed her hands at the elf’s throat, and felt for a pulse. Weak, thready. Callie poured [Mend Flesh] into his lungs, feeling the mana burn through her reserves. A sharp, medicinal scent filled her own sinuses, and she felt the familiar tingle of [Toxin Resistance] kicking in, a passive that she had once derided but which now seemed like the most valuable skill she possessed.

  She opened the elf’s airway, cleared the froth, and slapped his cheeks until he gasped a ragged breath. “You’re not dying today,” she said.

  Briar reached her side, Ember keeping watch for imps or strays. “There’s more incoming,” she said. “All along the north wall. Some of them aren’t even making it up the ladders.”

  Callie bit her lip, considering. They didn’t have enough healers for this. Even with [Detoxify I], she’d burn out her mana before the next volley landed.

  She was still debating when a tall, silver-haired elf stepped through the chaos and fixed her with a commanding glare.

  “Are you the healer?” he barked.

  “Depends who’s asking,” Callie shot back, not bothering to stand.

  The elf looked at her for a split second, then nodded. “Good. Talis Vex. Captain. With me. The dwarves have found a tunnel breach under the oasis. We need a healer and anyone who won’t panic in a hole.” He said this while already turning to go.

  Briar grinned, even in the face of open carnage. “Guess that’s us, huh?” She jerked her head at Ember, and the three of them fell in behind Talis.

  ***

  They followed him through the maelstrom of the wall, down a narrow stair that led beneath the main gate, past squads of battered defenders. The air grew cooler, then damp, then suddenly cold as they reached the bottom.

  A row of dwarves in heavy aprons was clustered around a jagged opening in the foundation, lit by nothing but the flicker of torches. One of the dwarves recognized Callie and nodded grimly.

  “They’re moving fast; working in teams,” he said. “They’ve already chewed through five meters of glass. If we don’t stop them now, the whole wall goes.”

  Talis Vex knelt by the hole leading to the dwarven countermine; and studied it with the detachment of a stone mason inspecting a crack.

  “We’ll need at least three with short pikes, including someone who can lead the way and deal with issues in the tunnels as they arise.”

  Talis turned, scanned the crew, and selected three defenders with a flick of his hand. “Healer, you’re with me. If anyone gets hit by poison, you’re the only chance they have.”

  Callie hastily prepared some linen masks soaked in anti-toxin liquid and distributed to the members of the countermining team.

  Briar gripped her bow, frowning at the narrow tunnel. “You sure about this?”

  “Hell no,” Callie admitted.

  Briar snorted, then slipped an arrow to her bowstring and crouched behind Ember, who was already angling his body to fit into the tunnel.

  ***

  The dwarven countermine intercepted the Cestoda’s tunnel just behind the horror.

  One moment, Callie was in a torch-lit crypt, the next, she was crouched in a jagged glass tube; heat and the smell of sulfur all around her.

  The Cestoda’s work was obvious. The walls of the tunnel were scored and etched in concentric grooves, as if a giant auger had been at work. At each meter, she passed clumps of glassy grit, streaks of blood, and the occasional shred of demon flesh.

  “Stay low,” whispered Talis, his voice carrying perfectly down the tube. “If the beast back tracks, we’re paste on the ceiling.”

  Callie concentrated on her breathing, filtering the air with [Toxin Resistance], trying not to think about what would happen if the thing turned on them.

  The tunnel bent left, then right, then suddenly widened into a chamber. Here, the Cestoda had chewed out a large cavern; and in it, the creature rested and waited; its first five segments writhing in anticipation of the work ahead.

  Talis and his men attacked simultaneously.

  They stabbed their pikes through the Cestodas’ anus deep into its hindgut. The Cestoda bucked and roared, the sound deep and metallic. A cloud of dust and glass shards filled the chamber.

  Briar ducked in beside Callie and loosed three arrows. They buried themselves in the monster’s eye cluster, causing a fresh spurt of ichor. Ember surged ahead, jaws snapping at the arthropod’s limbs, pulling them off systematically.

  The Cestoda twisted, catching one of the dwarves in a sideways sweep of its hind end. The man slammed into the wall, ribs crunching audibly. Callie was on him in a heartbeat, using [Mend Flesh] to patch his lung.

  “Hold still,” she muttered, ignoring the scream as she used [Bone Setting] to reset a rib.

  The tunnel began to vibrate. Callie looked up in time to see the Cestoda’s entire body spasm, then collapse in on itself.

  Talis and the defenders had attacked its hind quarters with more pikes and were chopping away at its segments.

  With one massive effort, the Cestoda tore itself away from its hind end leaving a trail of blue haemolymph behind it. It crawled forward slowly and disappeared into a tunnel of its own making.

  “Did we kill it?” Briar asked, notching another arrow.

  “That one at least. Cestodas can’t survive once transected.” Talis said. “We lucked out, this time.”

  Callie checked the dwarves. Two were still on their feet, one clutching a shallow gash that wasn’t worth treating now. The third was groggy, but alive.

  “Everyone, regroup at the surface,” Talis called out.

  “What’s that smell?” Briar said, wrinkling her nose.

  Callie sniffed, and a wave of nausea hit her. The air was sweet, but rotten, as if a thousand dead things were liquefying nearby.

  Talis looked at her. “That’s not us. That’s them.”

  A runner appeared at the edge of the chamber, his face pale and his arms windmilling. “Captain! The demons are stacking bodies in the breach. Ours and theirs. They’re…” he gasped, “they’re pouring something on it.”

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  Talis’s face went still, then he roared. “Everyone out now! And block the tunnels!”

  The runner nodded, eyes huge.

  Talis turned to Callie as they crawled and ran. “Bitumen. And sulfur. They’re going to torch the whole thing.”

  “By Nudimmud, get everyone out now!” Talis screamed. He turned to the dwarves. “Seal the breach. Use everything you have.”

  Briar kept pace with Talis, Ember at her side. “What about the ones still inside?”

  “If they make it, they make it,” Talis said, voice flat.

  They ran. The tunnel felt twice as long on the return, and Callie’s legs ached with every step. Briar pulled her along when she could. The heat from the bitumen fire caught up before they were halfway out.

  Behind them, the tunnel roared. The sound was wet and alive, like a hundred hives of angry bees. The air went from cold to stifling in a single breath.

  Callie saw the first waft of poison creeping up behind them; bright green, hugging the ceiling.

  She screamed, “Down!” and tackled Briar, pushing her flat to the ground. Ember fell in beside them, paws splayed, teeth bared.

  The poison rolled past, so thick it left a slime on her exposed skin. Callie felt it burn in her nose, but the [Toxin Resistance] passive soaked up most of the hit. Briar, however, started coughing despite the mask she had on.

  Callie slung Briar’s arm over her shoulder and hauled her forward, crawling on hands and knees.

  Ahead, Talis was already through the worst, dragging the runner by his belt. The elf’s face was gray, eyes watering, but he didn’t slow.

  They burst from the tunnel and into the relative safety of the crypt.

  The dwarves at the entrance slammed a slab of stone over the opening, then smeared it with a thick layer of alchemical paste.

  Callie checked Briar. The girl’s lips were tinged blue, and she was barely breathing.

  She rolled Briar onto her side, forced her mouth open, and cast [Detoxify I], pulsing the skill until her own mana bar flashed a warning.

  Briar sputtered, then drew in a shaky breath. She looked up at Callie and gave a weak smile. “You really have to let me save you one of these day,” she rasped.

  Callie laughed, but it was more relief than humor.

  Talis Vex surveyed the survivors. “We did what we could,” he said, as if reciting a litany. “Now get to the walls. If that poison breaks through, it’ll sweep the whole oasis.”

  Callie took a second to fashion more masks from scraps of linen and soaked them in diluted antidote. She tied one over Briar’s mouth and another over her own, then handed the rest to Ember, who carried them in his jaws.

  ***

  They reached the surface to find the world had become a nightmare.

  The green cloud had breached a side tunnel left by the Cestoda and was rolling across the lower city. Defenders staggered, retching and collapsing where they stood. Mothers clutched babies to their chests and ran, some tripping and falling, never rising again. Above, the wall was still holding, but fewer and fewer arrows were being loosed in return.

  Callie stuffed a mask over the face of the nearest fallen woman, then did the same for a child who had curled up by her feet. She pushed them toward higher ground, then scanned for more survivors.

  Briar coughed as she helped Callie with the heavy lifting. Ember followed her, disemboweling a few stray Shadeclaws along the way.

  At the far end of the square, Talis Vex rallied a group of battered defenders and led them back to the battlements to hold off the invaders.

  Callie didn’t look back. There was nothing behind her worth remembering.

  She kept her eyes on the living, and ran towards the banks of the oasis.

  ***

  Callie’s lungs burned with every breath.

  The poison was everywhere now, seeping into every alley, rolling down the ramps in thick, green coils, clinging to the lowest places like a living fog.

  She reached the edge of the oasis, collapsed to her knees, and plunged her arms into the water. Her mana reserves were low but were recovering in direct sunlight, the direct result of a Level 30 Passive [Chlorophyll Infusion].

  She couldn’t cast [Purge Root] as she did back during the raid on Apsu. The spell was now locked behind a Level 40 gate she had lost access to when she healed Briar.

  She had to make do with what she had.

  She combined [Purify Water] and [Detoxify] and channeled both into the waters of the oasis. The water brightened, then bubbled up in a familiar pattern creating a light green mana fog which circulated no further than the immediate area.

  It wasn’t a perfect barrier, but it was all she could muster.

  The effect was immediate: two children, faces already streaked with purple veins, dragged themselves to the edge and sucked in air with desperate gulps. Three battered defenders stumbled after them, hacking and spitting, their eyes red as embers.

  Briar appeared from the murk, Ember slinking behind her. Her lips had turned an unsettling blue, but her quill was now filled with arrows from the fallen.

  She slid to a stop at the water’s edge and pulled off her mask, breathing deep. “You did it,” she whispered, voice raw.

  Callie shook her head. “Only here. It’s all I can manage.”

  Briar wiped her mouth and nodded.

  Within minutes, dozens more had found the oasis. Some crawled, some carried, most half-dead. They crowded the perimeter, fighting for space in the clean air. Children fainted and were revived with slaps and splashes of water. Defenders pressed wet cloths to their mouths and screamed for help that wasn’t coming.

  Callie’s hands shook as she refilled her mana in the sunlight. She watched the cloud of toxins writhe at the boundary of her magic, like a beast held at bay by nothing but a glass wall.

  ***

  A scream echoed from the ramparts.

  Briar jerked upright, scanning the haze. “Talis was heading to the north wall last time I looked. If the demons break through there… ”

  Callie didn’t wait for the rest. She shoved herself upright, grabbed Briar by the wrist, and dragged her back toward the walls.

  Above, the battlements were a war zone.

  Piles of Shadeclaws littered the wall, some still twitching. The defenders, what was left of them, fought with wild abandon—axes, swords, even bare hands when arrows ran out.

  Talis Vex was easy to spot. The elf captain stood in the center of a ring of fallen Gorekins, sword flashing, his armor slick with something black and shiny. He shouted orders in three languages at once, never breaking stride.

  Callie reached him as a Shadeclaw leapt for his throat. She cast [Mend Flesh] on his arm without asking, sealing a gash that ran nearly to the bone.

  He looked at her, eyes wild but clear. “It’s too late. They’re everywhere. Fall back to the oasis and hold as long as you can.”

  Callie nodded, then saw Briar climbing a ladder onto a sniper’s perch overlooking the whole north side. She was already nocking an arrow, hands steady despite the tremor in her legs.

  Ember leapt up beside her and belched lava on to a Capra below them causing it leap chaotically around the dry moat, dismembering any minions foolish enough to stray too close.

  Briar’s first shot took a Shadeclaw between the eyes, dropping it mid-leap. The next arrow punched through the open mouth of a Gorekin, pinning its head to the wall. Callie watched as Briar’s rhythm set in—draw, fire, reload, never missing a beat.

  But with each shot, the number of targets grew.

  The demons had reached the upper levels of the wall, scaling it with reckless abandon. Capra Oblivione, denied entry by the barricade, now flung Emberlings and Shadeclaws onto the ramparts in droves. The air was thick with their screeches and the wet slap of bodies hitting stone and glass.

  The haze of poison was rising, tendrils snaking upward, seeking any opening.

  Within minutes, Briar’s perch was surrounded. Her arrows held them back, but the wall was collapsing beneath her.

  Callie saw her stagger, then drop to one knee. The poison had found her again, even up there.

  “Hold on!” Callie shouted, breaking from Talis and running for the ladder.

  She climbed two rungs at a time, Ember covering her ascent with a wall of fire and teeth. Briar was slumped over, gasping, her hands blue and trembling.

  Callie ripped the mask from her own face, pressed it to Briar’s mouth, and used [Detoxify I] until the mana nearly burned her fingers off.

  Briar’s eyes fluttered, then steadied. “Not again,” she rasped, but her lips had started to pink up again.

  Below, the wall was lost. The last defenders had either fallen or retreated toward the oasis.

  Shadeclaws and Gorekin looked up at the wall cautiously, slight wary of another one of Ember’s lava flows.

  Their leader, the Face-Sewn Reaper, had watched the entire assault with what seemed like studied nonchalance. He pulled his cloak of human faces around himself and directed them upwards with a simple upward tilt of his open palm.

  They started to climb the crack ridden edifice of the walls of Sarapis. Soon nothing would stand between them and the helpless civilians at the water’s edge.

  Callie pulled Briar upright. “Can you stand?”

  Briar nodded, wobbly but alive. “Can you?”

  “Don’t plan on dying yet.”

  They made for the ladder, Ember clearing the way, when the air changed.

  ***

  At first, it was just a shift in the wind, a ripple of heat over the poison fog. Then a deeper rumble, as if the earth itself was cracking.

  Briar turned, still coughing. “What is that?”

  Just beyond the walls, behind the restless Dread Knights, the haze was distorting, compressing into visible waves. Through the ripples, a shape emerged: a rider, tall and robed in black, astride a Sandstrider the size of a small house. The lizard’s scales were black, red, and burnished, reflecting the desert sky. Its tongue flicked in and out, tasting the battle; gasping for air.

  The Face-Sewn Reaper looked up expectantly, as if the main course at a banquet had just been announced.

  The other demons must have sensed it, too. The horde, mid-rush, hesitated. Shadeclaws stopping mid-step, Gorekins bracing themselves, even the Capra and Cestoda paused.

  Above them, the sky was a boiling mass of green, orange, and white.

  Below, the oasis gleamed like an island in a sea of death.

  And somewhere in between, Callie and Briar prepared for their final stand, side by side.

  (To be concluded in Book 2 Chapter 19)